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Biden’s halting speech and meandering comments, especially early in the debate, fueled fears even from members of his own party that, at age 81, he is not up to the task of leading the country for another four years.
It created a crisis moment for Biden’s campaign and his presidency, as members of his party flirted with potential replacements and donors and supporters could not contain their concern about his performance against Trump.
Biden appeared to acknowledge the criticism at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying “I don’t debate as well as I used to.”
But he added: “I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
Speaking for 18 minutes, Biden appeared much livelier than his testimony the night before, and he blasted Trump for his “lies” and a campaign of “revenge and retribution.”
“The choice in this election is simple,” Biden said.
“Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
He added, hinting at his candidacy, “When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Even before the debate, Biden’s age had been an issue for voters, and Thursday night’s meeting appeared to reinforce deep-seated public concerns in front of perhaps the largest audience to gather in the four months leading up to Election Day.
Personally, his campaign had spent the previous hours working to assuage concerns and keep donors and surrogates on board.
On Friday, Democratic lawmakers acknowledged Biden’s poor performance but tried to shut down talk of replacing him as their standard-bearer and instead tried to shift the focus to Trump’s attacks and lies, which they hoped would remind voters of the daily turbulence of his presidency.
“Well, the president didn’t have a good night, but neither did Donald Trump with lie after lie and his dark vision for America,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told The Associated Press on Friday, hours before he introduced the president in Raleigh.
“We cannot send Donald Trump back to the White House. He is an existential threat to our nation.”
Former President Barack Obama supported his former vice president, posting on X that “Bad debate nights happen.”
Alluding to his own poor performance in the first debate of his 2012 re-election campaign, Obama continued: “Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary people all his life and someone who only cares about himself.”
He added: “Last night didn’t change that and that’s why so much is at stake in November.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said a resounding “no” when asked Friday if Biden should step down.
Congressman Richie Torres, Democrat of New York, said: “After the performance last night, I had to take a few more anti-depressants than usual.”
“People have asked me, ‘Do I feel comfortable in the debate?’ You know, a Donald Trump presidency would make me a lot more uncomfortable than Joe Biden performing in a debate.”
Biden’s campaign billed the Raleigh event as the biggest boost yet to his re-election bid in the state, which Trump won by the narrowest of margins in 2020.
He will then travel to New York for a weekend of big-dollar fundraising, which his campaign needs now more than ever as it looks to unseat Trump.
The Biden campaign said it raised $14 million ($21 million) on the day of the debate and the morning after, while the Trump campaign said it raised more than $8 million ($12 million) from the start of the debate to its end of the night.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who the Biden campaign sent to defend his performance, was scheduled to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada. She told CNN hours after the debate: “It was a slow start, but it was a strong finish.”
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said he was having trouble sleeping because of the number of phone calls he received after Biden’s “terrible” performance in the debate.
“People were just concerned. And I said everyone who is concerned is healthy, overreacting is dangerous,” Cleaver said.
“And I think I wouldn’t advise anyone to make any rash decisions right now.”
Congressman James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who was previously a longtime member of the House Democratic leadership, said he would likely speak with Biden later Friday and his message would be simply: “Stay the course.”
Biden and his allies have sought to dispel concerns about his performance to keep the focus on voters’ choices this November.
They seized on Trump’s ambivalence about whether he would accept the will of the voters this time, his refusal to condemn the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, and the embrace of conservatives … targeting the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.
But Biden has become embroiled in abortion rights, one of the top issues for Democrats in this year’s election. He failed to explain Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The conservative Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by Trump, overturned Roe two years ago.
As elected Democrats publicly rallied behind Biden, donors and party officials shared panicked text messages and phone calls Thursday night and Friday, expressing concern that Biden’s performance was so poor that he might not be able to be elected this fall .
But there were no immediate signs of an organized effort among donors, his campaign management or the Democratic National Committee to persuade the president to step down, according to interviews with several people who spoke on condition of anonymity to share sensitive conversations.
Still, morale was low among some Biden campaign workers around the country, who were encouraged by top campaign officials in Delaware to hold hundreds of debate watch parties to draw as many eyes as possible to the Biden-Trump showdown. The morning after, some embarrassed lower-level campaign staffers privately expressed their desire for Biden to drop out of the race.
So were some top Democratic donors in New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley, who stressed the need to accommodate a Biden replacement in a series of text messages and private conversations. There have been informal talks between donors and those close to potential Biden alternatives to gauge their willingness to enter the race. But it didn’t make sense that a sitting governor or member of Congress would be willing to risk the political fallout that could come with publicly interrupting a Democratic president.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat often mentioned as a 2028 contender and speculated as a potential replacement for Biden on the ticket if he withdraws, released a statement supporting him on Friday.
“The gap between Joe Biden’s vision to ensure that everyone in America has a fair chance and Donald Trump’s dangerous, self-serving plans will only grow sharper as we head into November,” she said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also dismissed questions about whether he would consider replacing Biden, telling reporters after the debate, “I would never turn my back on him.”
Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden as the party’s nominee without his help or without party officials willing to rewrite the rules at the national convention in August.
Trump, meanwhile, flew to his golf club in Virginia, a onetime battleground that has swung Democratic in recent years but his aides believe he may swing to the Republicans in November. He was scheduled to hold a rally in Chesapeake on Friday afternoon.
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